Lucy Pandora Holiday

[Lucy Holiday]

The Basics

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Name: Lucy Pandora Holiday
Nicknames: Lulu, Pandy
Age:17
Orientation: Bi-curious
Desired Rank/Job: Student
Powers:
Illusions: Ability to create illusions. Side-effects include a slight gap between perceived and actual reality. In addition, Lucy tends to feel a deep fatigue when attempting to maintain elaborate illusions. At this point, Lucy can only create visual and olfactory illusions. She is still in the process of learning how to convincingly simulate touch, taste and sound. During her training at Hammel she has learned how to exercise more control over her ability. However, involuntary manifestations still occur during times of extreme stress or emotion. These involuntary illusions have also been known to happen when she is having a particularly vivid dream. When her focus is clear and her energy level is high, Lucy is able to maintain realistic visual illusions for hours at a time. The development of her olfactory skill was highly influenced by her chemotherapy treatments. They developed as a defense mechanism to help her cope with the various unpleasant smells that permeate the chemo room.
Play By: Lily Allen

The Details

Hair Color: Somewhere between dark brown and black. Her dad calls it Cherry Cola brown even though there's no cherry to it.
Eye Color: Chocolate brown, but sometimes she uses her ability to change the color.
Any Piercings? Just her ears.
Any Tattoos? None that are real, but sometimes she fakes them.
Any Scars? Yes. Lucy has 3 scars in her collar bone and chest area. On the left of her neck she has a small 1 inch scar from her lymph node biopsy. On the right of her chest she has a deep 2 inch scar from her port placement. She calls that one the hungry caterpillar because it looks like it has legs! Right above that she has a half inch scar from the same surgery. Lucy uses her ability to hide them.
General Appearance: Lucy isn't exactly a classic beauty. She's more of a classic cutie. Cute is the exact word that most people use to describe her. She would love to hear the word hot thrown her way, but she knows it doesn't exactly fit. When you are petite and curvy with baby cheeks and a button nose cute pretty much says it all! The freckles scattered across her nose and her shoulders seal the deal. Lucy claims to be 5'2", but she's really 5'1" and a half. In all honesty, she's about 15 to 20 pounds overweight for her frame. The extra weight creates an hour glass figure - Betty Boop style! Her pale skin and dark features strengthen the retro Betty Boop connection.

Before she started chemotherapy she had lost most of the fullness in her face. That all came back pretty quickly thanks to the steroids involved in her treatment. Lucy tends to frame her oval face with her thick wavy hair and blunt cut bangs. At the moment, she is actually sporting a G.I. Jane buzz cut thanks to the chemo, but that is something she never lets anyone outside of her family and doctors see. The scars that line her collar bone are another change in her appearance that she keeps hidden. Lucy could easily use her ability to make herself look a 6 ft tall super model, but for the most part she chooses to be herself. Since she started treatment, she has used her illusions to hide the scars and bruises and hair loss. Before that she mainly reserved them for the typical teen drama - zits, black heads and hickeys. Well, not counting the time she decided to give herself bigger boobs just in time for a major make out game at her best friends house! She thought for sure that she could make them feel and look real. Let's just say she never tried that again! Of course, she also takes full advantage of her abilities when it comes to Halloween or snagging a role in the school play. The drama department loves her!

When it comes to style, Lucy marches to the beat of her own drum. She's not bizarre or outrageous - just quirky. One day she might wear a sarcastic tight t-shirt and a pair of jeans with a hippie style headband, the next she might sport a super girlie ruffled dress complete with pearls and a pair of tennis shoes. For Lucy fashion is all about expression. She doesn't really follow any sort of trend. Lucy wears what Lucy wants to wear when she wants to wear it. Her mother learned that the hard way at a very early age. After hours of arguing and several full blown tantrums, the weary mom decided that wearing a hot pink dress with a feathered tiara and rainbow striped socks wasn't so bad after all. Lucy still sports her tiara every once in a while, but most days she's satisfied with more subtle personal touches.

Personality:
There are two Lucys. The Lucy you see walking the halls of Hammel and Lucy the Cancer Patient. Despite her parent's advice, Lucy has chosen to keep the two separate. She's never really been good at keeping secrets before, but this is way more than just trying to make sure your best friend doesn't find out that you ruined her favorite sweater the last time you borrowed it.

Lucy the student is pretty much the same as she was B.C. - before cancer. She's a mischievous prankster with a light hearted giggle and a contagious smile. Lulu frustrates her instructors. They don't understand how she can be such a goof off and still pass her classes with ease. A few of them who still have their sense of humor intact actually like her pranks and have even helped her pull a few on their co-workers. Her pranks are never mean-spirited, just...playful. Lucy will go down in Hammel history as the girl who plays dress up with frogs. To lighten things up on dissection day, Lucy dressed all of the cadaver frogs in tutus and tuxedos. She got in big trouble when she made them sing and dance - but it was SO worth it. Lucy also scored a few coolness points with the guys the time she actually fell asleep in class and woke up to the sound of girls shrieking as Freddy Krueger chased them around. The random sleep manifestations caused quite a few problems her first two years at Hammel, but the trainers helped her nip them in the bud shortly after. Now 95% of Lucy's illusions are on purpose - like the frogs. Other than her tendency to cause a bit of mischief, Lucy is actually a good student. That's what makes it so hard to stay mad at her. She is polite, hard-working and helpful. She's not a genius or anything, but her grades never fall below a B.

As for Lucy the teenager, she's pretty popular even though she doesn't think so. She's not part of the elite in crowd, but she's got tons of friends that love her sense of humor. There are probably even a few guys crushing on her, but Lucy is too busy thinking she's not hot to notice. Conversation comes easily for her. As they say, she's never met a stranger. The kids that don't like Lucy usually say it's because she talks too much and stays too damn happy. Lucy's close friends know that behind the chippy exterior, the petite girl can get down right nasty if you hurt someone she cares about.

Now for the flip side - Lucy the cancer patient. Of course this Lucy still has a sense of humor. She keeps her doctors and the biological manipulators that treat her in stitches. They all praise her for being brave and keeping such a positive attitude. They call her a true Warrior Princess. That's what they say to her face. When she walks away they worry about her being in denial. They worry about the Lucy that refuses to let on how sick she is even though she desperately needs a shoulder to lean on. They sigh over the Lucy that finally breaks down and cries in the chemo room when she feels too weak to create the illusion of a smile. Her parents and her brother are the only ones outside of the medical profession that see her weaknesses. Her teachers and trainers suspect that she isn't coping as well as she pretends to, but so far they haven't pushed the issue.

When the realities of being a cancer patient collide with her illusion of normal teen life, mood swings and confusion are the result. Over the past few months, Lucy's friends have noticed random moments of weeping, lack of energy and even down right bitchiness. Her slip ups are far enough apart that everyone just assumes that she's PMSing, but the friends that spend the most time with her are getting suspicious and worried.

Your Vices

Likes:

• fairy tales, vampire novels, mysteries, the Harry Potter series, cook books - books in general!
  
• the smell of bubble gum, cake batter, mint and leather - she wears peppermint oil or vanilla extract instead of perfume.
  
• retro movies like Footloose, Drop Dead Fred, The Fifth Element and Wild Things
  
• her more recent favorites are 50/50, the new version of Red Riding Hood, the Ginger Snaps series, Sucker Punch, all of the Harry Potter movies and the Twilight movies. - she has a pretty serious addiction to fantasy movies, but she'll watch anything as long as she has a bowl of extra buttery pop corn and a box of milk duds.
  
• Flowers - especially morning glories, spider lilies and daisies
  
• Hobbies- drama club, karaoke, listening to music, using her illusions to pull pranks, hanging out with her friends, surfing the internet, flirting
  

Dislikes:

• snobs, bullies, people who are judgmental or prejudice - mean people in general
  
• meta humans that use their powers to hurt others
  
• onions, tomatoes and any type of pepper - except banana peppers, she LOVES those
  
• being called cute or adorable
  
• the smell of the chemo room, the sound of the iv pump
  
• lack of humor - Lucy hates it when her joking around falls flat
  
• not being able to bring her cat and dog to school with her
  

Strengths:

• visual illusions
  
• most academic subjects
  
• singing and acting
  
• being a good listener - Lucy's friends call her the therapist of the group
  
• hiding her feelings - putting on a brave face
  

Weaknesses:

• food - Lucy has a tendency to bury her feelings by surrounding herself with all of her favorite foods.
  
• Math and history - she still makes As and Bs, but it takes a LOT of effort
  
• Making her illusions fully realistic - Lucy struggles with simulating touch, taste and sound.
  
• Incredibly stubborn!
  
• Holding grudges - It takes a LOT to piss Lucy off enough for her to push you away, but when it happens it takes just as much to earn her forgiveness.
  

Fears:

• Dying young - sounds totally melodramatic when you say it out loud
  
• People finding out how scared she is.
  
• Running into metas that can see through her illusions
  
• Failure
  
• Knives, razor blades, broken glass - anything that can slice.
  
• CLOWNS!!! She should have NEVER watched the movie IT.
  

Secret: Lucy has cancer - Hodgkin's Lymphoma 2A with nodular sclerosis to be exact. At this point it has been labeled as "refractory," which means it is not responding to conventional treatment. This is a secret that she has been closely guarding for the past 10 months. Her parents have notified the instructors at Hammel and they have done their best to help her maintain her privacy in this matter. Lucy knows she can't hold on to she secret much longer, but she is doing her best. The other students have already started questioning her absences and mood swings. Her original plan was to tell everyone AFTER she kicked cancer's ass, but that's taking longer than she expected. Plan B is to make the announcement when she leaves for her stem cell transplant.

Family Ties

Father: Bradley Edward Holiday (45)
Mother: April Nicole (Thomas) Holiday (43)
Siblings: Noah Bradley Holiday (15)
Any Other Important People:Her whole family, really. They are very close knit. Her dad's parents are Martha and Jim Holiday. Martha and Jim are both meta humans. Her mom's parents are Geneva and Lawrence Thomas. Ginny and Larry have no manifested meta human abilities, but they were raised aware of them because of meta humans in their family. Sometimes they feel like the black sheep even though they are the normal ones. Lucy is also close to her various aunts, uncles and cousins.

History

April Thomas and Brad Holiday weren't exactly friends at Hammel. She thought he was just a dumb jock and he thought she was an uptight nerd. Because of his Assumed Muscle Memory ability, Brad excelled in training and pretty much any sort of sport. Unfortunately that success didn't apply to his academics. April was totally opposite. She boasted a perfect 4.0 average every year and even got to skip two grades, but struggled with training to enhance her skills in Biological Manipulation of animals. The trouble between the two began when the Hammel teachers kept pushing the two together in hopes that she could tutor him in academics and he could help her overcome some of her physical awkwardness. Brad totally resented being tutored by the younger student. April totally resented dealing with his immature jokes. So how did Mr. Popularity end up with Little Miss 4.0? A dog. Yep, a dog. The summer before graduation, Brad took the car his parents bought him out for a spin. He was so busy showing off for his usual groupies that he didn't notice the neighbor's puppy streaking across the yard. Despite his lightening fast reflexes, it was too late. Brad jumped out of the car to find the little puppy bloody and whimpering. There was no way he could let the little neighbor kid see the puppy in such bad condition. His groupies bailed on him and Brad was left to figure things out for himself. Thankfully he remembered his mom mentioning that April was working on her biological manipulation over the summer by interning with the local vet. He scooped the puppy up and ran the whole way. Okay, it was only 2 blocks away but when they tell the story now it's more like 10. Brad got there right when April stepped up front to lock the door. She glared at Brad through the glass and rolled her eyes until she saw the bloody little lump of fur. The rest is history. In about a week the puppy was perfectly back to normal, but Brad and April would never be the same.

And that's how the Holiday family began. Brad and April got married right after they graduated. Through a combination of traditional college and meta human training, Brad became a physical therapist and April took over when the local vet retired. All of the energy that they used to use for bickering was channeled into...umm....other things. The sort of things that created their first expansion - Lucy Pandora Holiday. As soon as they found out they were having a girl they decided to name her after the first documented woman meta human in their family. For Brad that was his great, great, great grandmother - Lucy Jane Jackson. For April it was her great grandmother - Pandora Dianne Goodwill. Lucy was adored before she was even born on September 12, 1994. She enjoyed 2 years of being absolutely spoiled before her little brother came along. Lucy doesn't remember much of it but she's seen the pictures of her playing happily on her own. She's also seen the pictures of herself happily rubbing her mom's big belly. She swears she did not wish for a baby brother!

Regardless of what Lucy wished for, Noah was the next - and so far, final - addition to the family. April and Brad had always wanted one boy and one girl, so Noah made their little family feel perfectly complete. From the start Noah was a high energy baby that required a lot of attention! The young parents did their best to balance their time between the two munchkins, build their own careers, keep their marriage alive and have a social life somewhere in the mix of all that. Thankfully both sets of grandparents pitched in to help with childcare. Lucy and Noah have 2 human grandparents, 2 meta human grandparents and several meta human aunts and uncles. Coming from a mixed family, it was important to raise them with a foot in both worlds. Even though they would have loved them either way, Brad and April are thrilled that both of the kids developed meta-human abilities. Lucy is skilled in illusions. Noah exhibits ability in super speed.

Lucy's childhood was pretty standard until her ability manifested. They started out as random story book characters flickering across the wall during story time with her brother. Around the time that Lucy hit puberty, the illusions became more solid and more frequent. This is when Hammel stepped in. April and Brad were so excited that they almost missed how scared Lucy was. She had never been away from her family before. Even though she was born and raised in the town around Hammel, she had secretly hoped she would get to stay home. The nervousness wore off quickly once she got to Hammel and realized how awesome it was! Lucy's prankster personality quickly helped her make friends and feel more confident in her independence. Hammel felt even more like the best home away from home ever once Noah joined her two years later.

Things were pretty perfect until cancer came along and ruined it all. Or at least tried to ruin it all. Lucy is desperately clinging to her normal teen life as she fights against the disease. When she was first diagnosed, her parents were hopeful that being a meta human would give her an advantage over the deadly cells. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. In fact, not much is known about cancer in meta humans because it's so rare. Yes, Hodgkin Lymphoma is one of the most common cancers in humans her age, but only 5% of meta humans her age have any form of cancer at all. Most meta humans with cancer are much, much older. This is why it took several weeks before the Holidays could find a pediatric oncologist willing to take Lucy's case. Several of the trainers and teachers at Hammel actually played a huge role in assembling the team of doctors and biological manipulators that take care of Lucy now.

Roleplay Example

Lucy tiptoed quietly across the cold, wooden floor. Each step was carefully calculated. Every five steps Lucy froze to listen for signs of life. Every ten steps Lucy followed up with a quick glance around the silent living room as she held her breath. Being the first person up on Christmas day was pretty much Mission Impossible around the Holiday household. Lucy was determined to make it happen this year. This year it would be Lucy dumping snow in Noah's bed! She could practically taste her victory as her fingers silently gripped the brass knob of the front door.

A familiar breeze rushed past her cheeks and caused a low growl to rise from her throat. Before she could even huff, Noah's boisterous laughter filled the morning air. "Dammit, Noah! You so suck!" Mumbling about her brother's stupid super speed, Lucy slumped down in the rocking chair on the porch as the blur of movement slowly revealed her rosy cheeked brother, fully dress in his snow gear and sporting a wicked grin. Her failure only made her even more determined to work on making her illusions as realistic as possible. Just wait - next Christmas he'd wake up to a whole avalanche! If only she could make it feel as real as it looked. After a brief pity party, Lucy's grin soon matched her sibling. She giggled loudly as half a dozen snowmen appeared in the front yard and started chasing Noah with chainsaws waving wildly in the air. Noah laughed and played along. He could easily run right through them, but where's the fun in that?

Distracted by the smell of peppermint and cocoa, Lucy's snowmen gradually began to fade away. "Mmmmmm...." With her eyes still half closed and mesmerized by the scent, Lucy turned to find her mom with a steaming mug stretched out in offering. April Holiday claimed the rocker next to her and consoled her over the recent loss to her brother. Lucy just shrugged. "That's ok. Getting the first mug of cocoa totally makes up for it." From the yard, Noah loudly protested and wanted to know where his was. As he rambled up the porch steps, Lucy made an extra show of enjoying the peppermint goodness sloshing around in the porcelain Christmas tree mug nestled between her fingers. Noah grumbled and trudged into the house to retrieve his own as his mom and his sister giggled. Another familiar voice joined the scene through the screen door. April answered the call and joined her husband in the kitchen, leaving Lucy alone to enjoy the peaceful winter morning. Lucy's chocolate brown eyes scanned the maze of footprints in the snow as she sipped carefully. She had only been sixteen for a few months, but she already felt like she was looking at the world through more mature eyes. Lucy tried to ignore the fact that her dad had laughed at her and called her kiddo when she tried to tell him that.

With a stretch, Lucy stood and answered as the rest of the family called her to join her inside. "Coming, ya'll. Geez!" Humming a holiday song, Lucy's pudgy fingers pulled at the scarf around her neck. She hung it hastily on the hook by the door as she reached up to scratch the skin left exposed by its absence. "Stupid itch. Frigging stupid itch!" Bright red scratch marks trailed down her neck and across her collar bone. The itch had been driving her nuts the past few months, but Lucy was determined not to let it ruin her Christmas. As her nails absent mindedly ran up and over her neck and chin, Lucy suddenly froze. Her fingertips brushed over an odd lump right above her collar bone. She concentrated for a moment as she explored the edges of it. A walnut. It was about the size and shape of a walnut. "Hey, Ma. Look at this..." With a perplexed look on her face, Lucy wandered into the kitchen to show her mom the odd discovery.

What About You?

Name: Penelope
Age: 32
Experience: Off an on for about 5 years.
How Did You Find Us? Good ole Google! Just did a search for popular proboards
Ready To Play? YES! FINALLY! WHOO HOO! Ahem, I mean...sure.

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[Dryope *]

Accepted

Welcome to the Hammel Institute! Change her display name to first and last name, hit up the CLAIMS, and have fun. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

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